1. Field of the Invention
The present invention pertains to an integrated touch sensitive display into the surface of a DJ (disc jockey) jog wheel or rotatable member.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Phonographic turntables have traditionally been used by DJs to mix music and create special effects such as the well known scratch effect produced by moving the record back in forth in a fast rhythmic motion. Many DJs today use CD players or computers to mix their music. Since the DJ desires the same level of control that they had when mixing music on turntables, the CD players often have an integrated jog wheel or rotatable member that simulates the feel and effect of a vinyl record. Similarly, DJs that mix on computers often use a control surface that connects to their computer with an integrated jog wheel, or rotatable member that also simulates the feel and function of a vinyl record. The DJ turns the rotatable member 1, the turning motion 2, is interpreted by the software in the device or computer as a scratch effect. When the DJ touches the surface of the rotatable member 3, there is generally a mechanism that detects whether or not the surface of the member has been touched. However, the detector cannot detect the location that the surface of the member has been touched. Jog wheel or rotatable member control surfaces suffer from one major disadvantage compared to a traditional phonographic turntable. With a traditional phonographic turntable, or computer driven DJ software that uses a traditional phonographic turntable for control input, the disc jockey can instantly jump from one position of the music to another by simply lifting the tone arm and visually placing the needle in the desired position of the record. On the other hand, the upper surface of the jog wheel or rotatable member control surface is only capable of sending rotational information that the upper or side surfaces have been touched, not what position of the upper surface has been touched. This means that in order to jump from one position to another, which is known as “needle dropping” in traditional phonographic turntable vernacular, the DJ must use a separate set of controls, that are linked to a numeric display. With this combination, the DJ can also set what are called cue points. Cue points are positions that are stored in the memory of the device, that can be later returned to with the push of a button. However, there are no visual cues on the touch sensitive portion of the jog wheel or rotatable member surface. Again, referring to FIG. 1, when the surface of the rotatable member is touched by the DJ 3, the surface is only sensitive to whether or not it has been touched, it is not sensitive to where it has been touched. In some cases, the control separate sensors are positioned on the top and sides of the rotatable member in order to distinguish if the top or side has been touched. No matter which scheme is used, ultimately, the only information that existing jog wheel or rotatable member technology can send is rotational direction, rotational velocity, and possibly pressure, but not location of touch on the member surface.
Pioneer has integrated a display in the center of their non-motorized jog wheel or rotatable member (see U.S. Pat. No. 7,115,807 to Yamada, FIG. 2, element 4). The display has a pointer 5. This gives the user a rough idea of their position in the recording but does not correspond to a physical position on the jog wheel or rotatable member because the surface of the jog wheel or rotatable member can only detect whether it is touched, not where it is being touched. Different technologies have been implemented to detect touch/no-touch. These include switches and capacitive sensing. For example, see U.S. Pat. No. 6,961,289 to Liu.
FIG. 4 herein further illustrates a typical block diagram of prior art.
There are also devices which use an actual phonographic turntable as a control device. The turntable is connected to a computer through an external adapter. The turntable has a special LP record encoded with time code that is read by a conventional phonographic needle and cartridge. This control signal is converted to a digital signal through an external device and send to the computer. The computer is able to interpret direction and absolute position from this signal. The disadvantage of this solution is that the DJ must use a conventional turntable, an external audio sound card device and a special vinyl record and a computer.
Touch pad surfaces are well known as well as touch sensitive displays. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,521,336 to Buchanan describes a touch pad with a grid of non-intersecting flexible grid conductors. Resistive touch screens use two thin electrically conductive layers separated by a thin space. The upper layer is flexible as to make contact with the lower layer when touched. The voltage at contact point is measured and is used to determine the position. Other touch pads, such as those manufactured by Synaptics are capable of determining finger position by as little as 0.001 inches. Synaptics uses the capacitance between the finger and electrodes in the touch pad surface, separated by an insulator. The capacitance is measured in each electrode in two planes, from this they are able to determine exact position as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,305,017 to Gerpheide.
Other type of touch screen technologies use infrared sensors. They typically use an orthogonal array of image sensors to detect the interruption of the infrared light beams near the surface.
While the above prior art demonstrates that position sensing is widely known, it has never been used in combination with a rotatable DJ jog wheel or rotatable member in order to determine exact position on the member and correlate this to position in a musical or video performance.
U.S. Patent Application 2007/0234889 to Rotolo de Moraes suggests the use of multiple sensor under the jog wheel or rotatable member control to provide discrete regions of functionality. However, the functionality is limited to triggering discrete events because there is no way to sense the exact position of the wheel that has been touched, only the region.
Display feedback has been incorporated into DJ rotatable control devices. U.S. Patent Application 2007/0274181 to Yao discloses providing visual feedback through the use of blinking lights on the member surface. The above-identified Rotolo de Moraes reference also teaches visual feedback on a DJ control wheel through discrete LEDs mainly as a learning tool and to provide some type of scoring mechanism for competition. However, in both of the above mentioned references, the function of the display is limited in utility by the fact that only a fixed number of LEDs are provided.